Dota 2: The Kiev Major 2017 Tournament Preview

11 April 2017 13:52

The Kiev Major begins on 27th April at the National Palace of Arts, Ukraine, with sixteen teams battling it out for the huge $1,000,000 prize on offer to the tournament’s winners. Sponsored by Valve, the four-day event is part of the Dota Major Championship, and teams will be looking to secure victory playing Dota 2 – a competitive, multiplayer action, real-time strategy game.

The aim of Dota 2 is to destroy the enemy Ancient Structure inside your stronghold, and there are 111 playable heroes categorised by strength, agility and intelligence. Likened to League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth, Dota 2 has grown to become one of the main attractions in the esports calendar with skilled professional players utilising their own tactics and strategic moves to devastating effect.

Of the sixteen teams competing in Kiev, eight have been directly invited to the tournament. They are OG, Evil Geniuses, Newbee, Team Liquid, Wings Gaming, Digital Chaos, Team VG.J and Ad Finem. Teams will be separated into four groups, leading onto a single elimination bracket based on their performance. All games are decided by the best of three, increased to the best of five in the grand final when the overall winner will be decided.

The eight teams who have made it to the Ukraine-based tournament through qualification did so off the back of a gruelling campaign, with open qualifiers held from 6th-9th March followed by main qualifiers on 10th-13th March. After winning their respective main qualifiers, Team Onyx (North America), SG e-sports (South America), Team Secret (Europe), Virtus.Pro (CIS; Commonwealth of Independent States), iG Vitality and Invictus Gaming (China), Team Faceless and TNC Pro Team (Southeast Asia) can look forward to April’s group stage and main event in front of a packed audience.

The Kiev Major is the second Dota Major of the 2016-17 season, following The Boston Major 2016 which saw OG triumph 3-1 over Ad Finem in the final at the Wang Theater, Massachusetts. OG also came out on top 3-1 in The Manila Major 2016 against Team Liquid, with Team Secret victorious in The Shanghai Major 2016.

Given their recent track record at The Majors, OG are one of the pre-tournament favourites and could secure their fourth Major victory in Kiev. Team Liquid have also been tipped by some to impress following their 3-1 win over Team VG.J in last month’s StarLadder’s i-League StarSeries Season 3 LAN Finals. After victory over OG in the Dota Pit Season 5 back in January, Evil Genuises are also one to look out for.

The multi-million dollar cash prize pool of $3,000,000 is split between all competing teams in Kiev, with the $1,000,000 prize for 1st place 33.33% of the overall prize pool. The runners-up take home $500,000, 3rd and 4th placed teams get $250,000, 5th to 8th place claim $125,000 with $62,500 going to those finishing 9th to 16th.

There is bound to be great interest in The Kiev Major from a number of fans worldwide, and the whole tournament will be live streamed on Twitch.tv.